Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Bank of (Un)America(n)

A young Marine that was recently wounded in Afghanistan and later died from his injuries in Germany, LCpl Christopher Fowlkes, was being honored by the residents of his hometown. Flags and yellow ribbons lined the streets in Gaffney, South Carolina in anticipation of this hero's return.

"The show of community support began on the tarmac of the airport and continued for some 35 miles of Interstate 85. Virtually every overpass had people standing and saluting and holding Old Glory. Cars pulled over. Trucks pulled over with their drivers standing on the roadway, hand over heart. And when the procession arrived in Gaffney the support for this Marine was astonishing. I don't believe anyone was at home in Gaffney. They were all lining the streets to salute their fallen hero.

It seems everyone is Gaffney was proud to honor this fallen Marine. Everyone except Bank of America.

The Gaffney branch manager of Bank of AMERICA personally removed all flags and stated that they "violated company policy" and that customers could be offended by the flags. She said that the BANK had a policy against the flying of ANY flag --even the AMERICAN flag. Even though they are bank of AMERICA and apparently even though they had no problem taking 45 BILLION dollars in federal bail out money.

Bank of America has apologized and claims the manager must have "misunderstood their policy."

"...Bank of America released a statement to FOX Carolina on Thursday calling the issue a “misunderstanding” about the policy. It reads:

“We want to ensure the community knows how deeply proud we are of the men and women who have sacrificed so much in service to our country. The bank does fly the American flag at our locations throughout the country, and flags were displayed in front of our banking center in Gaffney the evening prior to our dedicated Marine returning home.” (source)

They wouldn't need to shell out the big bucks to have Jack Bauer narrate their commercials if they were actually a decent bank --it seems this insult to LCpl Fowlkes (and subsequently all Americans) is not the first major foible bank of America has made...remember this?